Data is everywhere, with IoT and the growing interconnectivity of the different data feeds, data sources, channels, and data consumers, the need for Data Governance controls guided by a Data Strategy are highly arise to support business decisions and fulfill compliance requirements such as European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mandated since May 2018 and BASEL II/III for banking and insurance industry.

There are probably many definitions of Data Governance out there, but any reasonable definition would have to be consistent with the general meaning of governance. A dictionary definition of govern is “to exercise authority over.” And authority is “the power or right to give commands, enforce obedience, take action or make final decisions.” If we are to truly govern our data, we must have systems and processes that ensure the data is consistent with the decisions of the people in authority. So, “Data Governance” can be defined as the “The formal orchestration of people, processes, and technology to enable an organization to leverage data as an enterprise asset.” Continue reading Data Governance for Leaders: Turn Data Strategy into Actions

An interesting trend has started in Data Quality. Data Quality has lost its cachet (if it ever had it), and is quickly being overshadowed by the concept of “Data Control”. Data Quality is often thought of as a backroom activity, relegated to IT, and just another part of the plumbing of an overly complicated technology stack. Data Control, however, is seen as exciting. It connotes authority, which the business has long wanted to have over the data it so desperately needs for every tactical and strategic decision coming down the pike. But what is Data Control?

The Infosec CIA triad of Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability are just as applicable today as they were many years ago.

In recent years, confidentiality has gone out the window as celebrities’ personal photos from their own devices are leaked with reckless abandon; ransomware, or IoT-powered DDoS attacks render information and websites unavailable; and fake ads, news, or trending topics leave you questioning whether anything online has any ounce of integrity.

A company’s effort to comply with GDPR didn’t end on May 25. The work is ongoing, tied to a recognition of privacy as a fundamental right.

When GDPR was announced two years ago, most organizations were in awe of its complexity, scope, global impact, and unprecedented penalties. Although compliance efforts were started, the general description and lack of detail left many confused. Most organisations are used to a compliance checklist and that was not forthcoming with GDPR. Even now, after “GDPR Day,” 27% of respondents say they have concerns about GDPR going into effect and many of these concerns stem from common misconceptions about what effect GDPR will have on how companies operate. Continue reading 5 Common GDPR Misconceptions

Many companies are falling short of data protection obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). DLA Piper’s Data Privacy Scorebox shows that, on average, companies are complying with less than 40% of GDPR principles.

The European GDPR will apply to processing carried out by organizations operating within the EU and to organizations outside the EU that offer goods or services to individuals within the EU. The UK government has confirmed that the UK’s decision to leave the EU will not affect the commencement of the GDPR.

Companies failing to comply with the GDPR after its implementation in May 2018 could face fines as high as 4% of global annual turnover. But so far, companies are scoring an average of 38.3% against GDPR principles, including in areas such as how prepared businesses are for security breaches, how they classified sensitive and non-sensitive data, whether or not they considered data storage risks, etc. Continue reading So Far Most Companies 60% Non-Compliant With GDPR

Business Intelligence, the analysis of data that companies create simply by doing business, can drive greater profitability.

Business intelligence, or BI, is changing the way small to mid-size companies are making decisions, and it is creating significant advantages for those that do it well. If you are an entrepreneur, you know how important information is when it pertains to decisions that involve the future of your business. Data-driven decision-making helps improve potential outcomes by reducing speculation in favor of analysis. Continue reading Things Business Owners Need to Know About BI

Data governance used to be a nice to have, but due to the increasing focus and importance of data and analytics, it’s becoming a necessity that helps to drive data management across the enterprise.

Enterprise Data Management (EDM) seems to be at the top of many organizations’ strategies for 2018, as the importance of data to organizations continues to grow exponentially. EDM plans may include modernizing an existing data warehouse to enable near real-time data, building a big data environment to support deeper analytics, focusing on and increasing digital capabilities and associated analytics, moving existing data and analytics to the cloud, increasing analytics capabilities in the organization, or most likely a combination of these. Continue reading Why data governance?

IBM announced Watson for Cyber Security, a powerful new ally for organizations that want to protect their data from Net marauders.

The new offering bolsters the ability of information security pros to analyze the flood of information from the roughly 200,000 events that pour into their Security Operations Centers, or SOCs, every day.

About 20 percent of that flood is comprised of structured data that can be analyzed with database tools, but as much as 80 percent of it is unstructured data such as security blogs, white papers, Twitter feeds and forum threads. It’s data that contains valuable nuggets, but finding them is difficult.

“What Watson does is take all that information — structured, unstructured, as well as other information from the operations center — and put it in a cognitive system,” explained Denis Kennelly, vice president of development and technology at IBM Security.

“There it can be used to help the SOC operator to triage the security events,” he told TechNewsWorld.

While Watson can speed the analysis of data, its threat detection potential is limited, maintained Scott Miserendino, chief data scientist at Blu Vector.

Please join us for the 2017 Perth Data Management Workshop on August 10, 2017.

In response to the current economic conditions this year, the Perth Data Management Workshop (formerly known as Symposium) will once again be a one day event – August 10, 2017 – and we have highly discounted the registration rates to make it easier to attend.

We invite you to come participate as we work together towards collective action and community building. PPDM Association Events are specifically designed to facilitate collaborative idea sharing, discussion and networking. You can expect to participate in numerous discussions, workshops and activities. Learn from your colleagues’ experiences, ask questions, build relationships and make key face to face connections. Engage in dynamic sessions and attend information packed presentations. Continue reading Perth Data Management Workshop

After hearing evidence from regulators, community groups and the industry, another Senate Inquiry has reported with a clear majority of its voting members supporting oil and gas activities in the Great Australian Bight, subject to robust regulatory standards.